No Such Thing As Fair Competition
by MargouxBriar
Summary: To pursue his dream, Jim has been forced to leave behind those he loves. Will a galactic competition bring long lost friends together? Or will a moment of jealousy and lust destroy an age long friendship?
1. Late On Account of Lust

Disclaimer: I don't own Treasure Planet *tear*, therefore I have concoted this outragous story. I do own most of the characters though.

Chapter 1: Late on Account of Lust

James? James! Secilya s persistence was wearing thin on Jim s nerves; after all they d been up till at least midnight studying . How the hell could she be such a morning person? James!

What? He grumbled deep in his throat, wiping at the sleep dry on his lashes with the heel of a hand.

Get up or we ll be late.

Late for what? Shifting his weight to his elbows he slowly he blinked but the harsh sunlight bleeding into his dorm was almost too much to bear. Late for what Secil? It s Sunday. She paused for a moment, yesterday s wrinkled blouse and a mismatched sock clutched to her chest.

James yesterday was Sunday. She threw on her blouse, to keep her hands free to search for her skirt. I thought you said you weren t drinking last night? Jim lazily kicked the sheets from atop him, legs dangling over the side of the bed. Can you help me look for my- As she bent to search by the dresser table her boyfriend wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. James-

Three things: I told you before, call me Jimmy. Everybody else does. Secondly, I didn t drink last night. Great sex with my girlfriend tends to make me lose track of time. And third, forget about class for just one day. He placed a lingering kiss to the exposed flesh peeking out from her collar. Let s just relax.

Jame- Jim, we have a two hour essay in Pleubus s history class.

What?! He tossed Secilya- all 107 pounds onto the bed. When?

In fifteen minutes.

You ve got to be kidding me? Damn it I knew that we should have studied last night. As Jim further trashed his dorm to find a uniform that didn t smell like gasoline or cigarette smoke Secilya buttoned up the white blouse as best she could; Jim had managed to pop one off in his fervency the previous night. Pulling her blonde mane into a messy bun she kissed her boyfriends cheek.

I ve got to head out. I ll see you in class okay?

Jim, we ve got to- Brent, Jim s roommate, stepped back into the hall to allow Secilya to slip through the door. So?

So ? Close the damn door. Brent cracked a smile as he obeyed his flustered friend s command. Jim grabbed a faded pair of blue trousers and fought to hike them on. What s with the smug grin?

Nothing. I m just wondering when you re going to tell me how last night s festivities went. Throwing the red head a smug grin of his own from atop the shoe laces he was stuffing into his shoes he joked,

There s a reason you were locked out. Besides you were plenty busy with- what s her name?

Bridgette. I really think that she s-

Dude save it. You ve said she s the one for every other girl you ve hooked up with this month. I would ve thought that you d have chosen your words more carefully. Grabbing their books they headed from the boys dormitories to IA s main building.

You don t get it. Bridgette and I are so made for each other.

Really? Tell me one thing that you two have in common that doesn t involve sex.

Well what about you and Secilya? There s been a sock tied to the door every Friday and Saturday for the last three weeks. Jim resisted the urge to roll his eyes, not at Brent s observation but at his friend s naivety. It was classic Brent Norcom behavior: forget introductions, no need for information, just screw. A lot.

At least we ve been dating for more than a week. Besides she said that she wanted to take our relationship to the next level .

Are you sure you weren t the one begging for- shit!" The first period bell was going to ring any moment. "Race ya?"

"Oh, you're on."

"Time is up. Essays on my desk and no talking until all papers have been handed in." Damnit, he knew that he should have studied, this had to be at best a D+ paper. But- he turned in his seat to see Secilya wave and throw him a sultry gaze that made all the blood in his brain head south.

It was worth it.

"How did you think you did?" Brent breathed down his neck from his seat.

"Let's just say that when my mom see's this mid-term she's going to-"

"Mister Hawkins." Damn. "Since you enjoy public speaking why don't you inform the class about the festivities this Friday?"

"Wait, we're having a party?"

"No," there was a chorus of disappointed 'ohs' and a few misplaced 'boo's' from the teenagers. Plebus flashed a toothless grin of withheld information, waving his blue tentacles to quiet the class. "Interstellar Academy is hosting the first annual Galaxy Games." Hype gripped the class and Mr. Plebus did his best to answer the dozens of questions hurtled in his direction.

"What the hell are the Galaxy Games?"

"Think of it as the Olympics. Rather than countries being the participants the competitors will belong to four schools."

"Who are the other schools?"

"Excluding Interstellar there will be the Migalta Charter School-" M.C.S boasted to further enriching some of the most intelligent minds in the galaxy. Doppler had been a student there some 20 odd years ago. "Kinapse Military Academy-" The boo's returned by an even larger margin. Kinapse had been a rival school to I.A. for over half a century. None of the current students really understand why two schools striving for the same goal: galactic peace would have so much hatred towards each other. But like they say: the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. "And M.H.S. Montressor High School." The name of Jim's long forgotten high school caused his heart to skip a beat. Or two. There was no way-? What would happen if he caught up with some old friends- the friends he had all but abandoned three years ago?

He quickly shook away his worries and his heart eased out of tackycardia and into a smoother rhythm. His old buddies weren't exactly the most promising of students. What were the chances they'd still be in school?

_  
Thanks for reading! 


	2. Conspicious Smirk

Disclaimer: I don't own them! I don't own anything! Even my identity! (that belongs to the government!) Teehee ;)

Chapter 2: Conspicuous Smirk

"I hear that the Interstellar Academy is **the** most prestigious school in the galaxy."

"Sure Kiley but like any real school it's only 'prestigious' because those kids' parents shell out money like its dirt. Ain't that right Cameron?" The weight of Peter's arm draped across her shoulder drew her back into reality.

"Yep, yeah." She leaned into his solid chest, a motion that she'd eased into over the past year. Outwardly appeased Kiley flickered her head in acknowledgement before turning on her heels to get another classmates take on the school they would be competing against.

"You all right?"

"Yeah why?" Her eyes, a rich amethyst at the moment flitted back and forth from the Interstellar Academy campus, engorging into a fortress as the ferry drew closer- to Peter's emotionally concealed face.

"Well you've been kinda spacey the whole ride." Truthfully, she had that stupid yet undeniably cute smirk and blank stare on her face the whole six hours from Montressor. In fact he could recall that look as far back as three weeks, when the seven of them were told they would be partaking in a contest that, if their best efforts were put forth, they would receive enough credits to graduate. He wasn't sure whether to be ecstatic about seeing an old friend and to be graduating or to be jealous that his girlfriend was paying more attention to a guy she hadn't seen in years.

"I'm fine, really." He shrugged away his concern, his arm simultaneously gliding around her concave stomach as he circled her.

"But are you sure you don't want to freshen up before you see Jim?" Her dark cheeks burned scarlet. Wonderful, even her fake boyfriend could tell she was still hung up over one of their oldest friends. It probably didn't help that all she ever did was talk about him.

"Shut the hell up." She lightly shoved him.

"I know that you did not just do that." He cocked his head from side to side, his voice high like the diva he was trying to impersonate.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Something inventive. Depends on whether you want to scream my name over and over again- or laugh. Haven't quite figured it out just yet." She dodged to the left and he counter-acted. To the right- saw her move a mile away. She tried to go through him... bad idea. In half a second he tossed her onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"Peter Nichols?" Ms. Lipton, the supervisor for the M.H.S. students, peered around the deck for her trouble making charges.

"Here." She nodded swiftly despite that, from what most could see, she had no neck.

"Cameron Imrie?" Again the peer over a tacky pair of cat's eye glasses for a student no more than two feet in front of her. After all, who couldn't see a teenage girl strung over her boyfriend's shoulders?

"What's up- oww!" Peter brought his hand down over her bum with a resounding smack. Laughing too hard to maintain his hold on her he let her down feet first, hands gingerly running over what was sure to be an inflamed hand print.

"Max Green-"

"Ms. Lipton none of us ditched a'ight? We're all f'ing here." Saliene, Max's cat eared girlfriend of 6 months, cuffed him hard in the ribs.

"Since we're all accounted for, according to Mr. Green, let's proceed to the docks." Ms. Lipton fanned her students toward the exit and as well as she could manage, tried to line them up. Unfortunately their line bore more resemblance to a beaten in semi-circle.

"You shouldn't have been so hard on her." Cameron whispered taking an empty space beside the interspecies' couple. "She doesn't know who she's dealing with. I think she might actually be afraid of us."

"Well all I want to know is where the hell did she expect us to go? We were on a boat?!" You couldn't put a simple task like escaping from the dilapidated ferry past any one of these students. Unlike all their competition M.H.S. didn't boast to enriching the galaxy's finest, in fact it harbored the galaxy's most troublesome cases. For most of the students Montressor High was their last chance to evade juvie or a potential jail sentence. The charges ranged from public drunkenness to theft to attempted murder; in other words it wasn't escaping the ferry that would be their greatest feat. The real magic trick was how so many of these kids had managed to evade prison.

Peter handed her the strap of her faded green duffel bag. "Excited to see Jim?"

"No." She hated when he teased about that. "I just want to get this stupid competition over and done with and get my credits. Without seeing that-"  
"On the behalf of the Interstellar Academy, welcome. I'll be your tour guide for this evening and if any questions or problems should occur on the remainder of your stay just ask for me and I will do my best to resolve the issue."

"That's very charitable of you Mister..."

"Hawkins. Jim, Hawkins."

Damn it!

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Thanx's for reading!


	3. Seriously, I Don't Get You

Disclaimer: The world knows I don't own TP so why does the world continue to ask?! Oh, the agony!

Chapter 3: Seriously, I don't Get You

For most of the tour Cameron managed to avoid Jim's gaze and had further managed to reign Peter in enough to keep her status on the down low.

"I really don't get you sometimes."

"What are you talking about?" Inky black strands of hair peeked from beneath the crimson hood slipped low over his forehead.

"Jim is like 'your whole world'-" Snarky little bastard. "And the one time you happen to see him- you hide?" Eyes fixated on the class- and the speaker- Cameron tucked her hands into Peter's back pockets before she trained herself on the guy inches away. "I seriously don't get you."

"I know it doesn't make sense just now but- lets just say it's a bit of a...reconnaissance."

"These four rooms are set aside strictly for Montressor Highs usage. They're standard dorms so they fit comfortably up to two people." No sooner had Jim cracked open the door for show-and-tell than twins Henry and Kraig Slate threw their bags inside.

"We call it."

"Sure..." Jim side-stepped what he was sure to be more flying luggage. "Why don't we get ownership out of the way so there's no war later on tonight."

"Come on," Peter eased her hands from his pockets to take them in his own. The dorm he had cocked his head at smelled like leather, strange since there was virtually no leather upholstery. Otherwise, the room was pretty standard just as Jim had said: two beds, a closet alongside the door and a wood based side table between the beds. " This good enough for you?" She exhaled loudly, taking a seat on one of the blue checkered comforters.

"As good as its going to get. What lame-ass events do you think they're going to make us do?" A shrug of broad shoulders, a swipe at the hood to reveal his face.

"Who knows? But one things for sure: we're going to be the underdogs in this competition."

"I heard. A school of genius's and two military academies." She laid outstretched on her back, calloused hands tucked beneath her head. "If they wanted us to tank they could've picked regular school's and saved themselves the trouble."

"I guess." He wiped his palms on the leg of his jeans before laying beside her. "So are we going to share a bed or..."

"I don't see why we'd need to. There are two beds."

"Well yeah but-" He shifted onto his side to face her, his elbow propping up his torso. "I was kinda thinking that-"

"That what? That you'd get lucky? I only get drunk at the club so don't even 'kinda think' about it." Plopping onto his back he groaned deep in his throat and being the tease that she was she wrapped a leg over his waist to draw herself onto his lap. "I'll think about it. But that in itself isn't an answer."

"On the contrary," his hands cupped her waist. "I think I've got my answer."

"And this is why guys and gals don't share a- Petey? Cameron? For real?"

"For real for real man." Sinking onto the comforter the 18-year-old watched as the boys exchanged a handshake the two had devised back in junior high: a weird culmination finger signals, an elbow grab, and a brief clap on the back. "Haven't seen you in- what? Two years?"

"Yeah sorry about that. The way hings go around here free time is rare as hell." Cameron shifted to sit cross legged at the edge of the bed with her arms propping up her thrusted torso- and Jim's eyes followed. What had changed in two years? A hell of a lot that's for sure. It didn't take long to figure why Petey had chosen to tap that. "Little badass Cameron. Can't say I miss the pigtails."

"I'm sure that's not all you miss."

"And by that you mean...?"

"I'll bet that all the stuck up bitches that go here just can't compare to sharing your bed with me." The boys shared a telepathic 'what the...' moment. Brows quirked in interested confusion Jim could do little else but stare at the girl slinking towards him. Peter meanwhile ran a hand down his face to mask either embarrassment or a twinge of jealousy. Draping an arm around his neck Cameron bumped her old friend in the side with her hip. "I was kidding. You know as in 'ha ha'."

Their expressions wavered between suspended curiosity and an 'I think she's pulling our leg' comprehension. Jim clapped her on the back before seizing her by the waist and spinning her into a hug.

"I missed you guys."

"You have a real funny way of showing it." She tossled the brown locks at her finger tips; it had grown out since last she'd seen him and that ponytail she'd loved so much was long gone.

"What's going on?" All eyes shifted to the blonde in the doorway.

Only Jim's smile faltered.

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Oh boy! Just wait and see. I see a catfight in the future... but you didn't hear it from me.


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